The girl’s fair skin must have been scalding hot, she was blushing so hard. “I still feel bad. That’s what I owe you for. Don’t worry,” she said hurriedly. “Jacob punished me. I didn’t know you two were involved, so maybe he was extra mad.”
Warmth chased through her, singeing away the cold. That day, in her library, when she had questioned Jacob as to why he and Kati were on the outs, he hadn’t been able to look her in the eye. No wonder.She was unkind to someone I care about.
Akira turned to face the younger girl. “That was before we were…involved.”
“Oh.”
“I’m sorry you were punished. I don’t much mind being called a bitch, or a whore, or a slut,” she informed Kati gently. “Those words usually mean the person saying them thinks I’m too rich or too smart or I’m having too much fun. But I think your brother has a moral streak that doesn’t allow him to see things the way I do sometimes.”
“Yeah.” Kati looked down at her feet. “Whether you mind or not, I think he’d like me to apologize to you. I shouldn’t have said it. I guess I was with Mei so much, and—”
“Apology accepted,” Akira cut her off, not eager to dwell on all the names her parent called her.
Still staring at her feet, Kati mumbled, “He’s like my dad, you know. Those other two idiots, they’re my brothers. But Jacob’s basically my dad. I hate that he’s hurting.”
Akira wasn’t adept at handling children. She could safely say there wasn’t a maternal bone in her svelte body.
But even she couldn’t remain unaffected by that pronouncement. She cleared her throat, filing the moment away so she could recount it for Jacob. If and when he took her back. “Yeah. I know.”
“So if you guys get together and he’s happy…” Kati shrugged. “I don’t think we’ll be best friends, probably, but I’ll try not to be jealous and mean. Because you’re right. He deserves more than taking care of us for the rest of his life.”
The lukewarm acceptance was more than she could have expected, especially since Mei had most likely poisoned the girl for years against her. Akira opened the door. “Thanks. I appreciate that.”
Kati bit her lip, suddenly looking very young. “Jacob calls me every night. But when you see him, could you maybe remind him opening night for my school play is this Friday? I didn’t want to pressure him, but I want him to be there.”
Akira murmured her agreement. She had made it down the stairs to the street when she heard her name behind her.
She turned, her hand on the railing. “Yes?”
Kati’s smile was bright, the first genuine grin Akira had seen out of the girl since she was a child. “I remembered something. You asked if Mei mentioned you at the end.”
Akira immediately shook her head. The last thing she needed to take with her to Jacob was the demoralizing memory of her mother telling Kati she was a slut.
She’d told Kati the truth—the names generally didn’t bother her much. Her mother simply had a unique ability to be the exception to that rule, always. Her opinion, Akira had cared about. Hers and Jacob’s. “That’s—”
“Once Mei was talking about your dad, and she said there was nothing more wonderful then the fact that you were more successful than he was.”
Something clenched in her chest, making it difficult to breathe. “Really?”
“Yup.”
It wasn’t a deathbed declaration of love.
But it was something.
Chapter Twenty-Three
By the time Akira pulled her car to a stop at the cabin, she sorely wished that it hadn’t been her driver who had betrayed her. This second leg of Operation Find the Brooding Author had been particularly tiring. The sun was starting to set, and her emotional and physical exhaustion was making itself known.
She turned the car off and stared at the small house, half-fearing the Campbell siblings had lied or alerted Jacob to her imminent arrival. Jacob’s car wasn’t anywhere to be seen. The clearing was quiet and abandoned.
He could have parked around the side of the place, she told herself, and clambered out of the car. Her heels sank immediately into the earth, which was damp from recent rain. She glanced down, idly noting they were the same pair she’d tossed to Jacob when they were ducking paparazzi and escaping from her second-story office window.
Not even her favorite shoes were safe from the memory of the man.
Dismissing the mud clinging to the narrow heel with a never-before-seen blithe disregard for her precious footwear, she reached into the backseat to grab the paper bag she’d stowed there. Shifting the weight to one arm, she took a deep breath before making her way to the front door, her shoes sticking in the dirt.
Akira opened the screen door and tapped lightly on the wood.
